My Phone Call from the President-Elect

Jan 9, 2017

RUSH: So last week — one day last week — I’m out on the golf course. I’m on the back nine on the 14th hole and my phone starts ringing. I look at the number; I don’t recognize the number. It’s a 212 number, so I figure it’s a wrong number and I just click “decline” and move on. It keeps ringing, keeps ringing, and I keep hitting “decline.” I don’t know the number. I don’t know any numbers. I never answer the phone anyway. I can’t hear what people are saying on it. The next thing you know, my email starts going nuts. It turns out President-Elect Trump was calling.

And so I get an email, “President-Elect Trump is trying to reach you. Here is the callback number. Could you call back as soon as you can?” I wrote back and said, “Well, I’d love to, but I’ve got about five holes left to go. I’m in the middle of the golf course. Will he be around in an hour and a half?” Mike Pence sends an email: “He really wants to talk to you right now.” So after I teed off on the 14th hole, I told my buddies, “Take the cart and head on down to the shop and I’ll walk up and meet you.” And I returned the call, and I had about a — oh, I don’t know — five-minute phone call.

Mike Pence was on the call with President-Elect Trump. (interruption) No, I can’t tell you what was said. It was what it was. (interruption) No, no. It was fine. It was fine. Very nice. It was very uplifting. It was very… It was fun. Five or six minutes and that was… (interruption) I didn’t… Well, I… (interruption) Well, I figured he would understand. (interruption) Look, I’m on the golf course. I’m on the golf course. I’m gonna call him back. I’m gonna. He plays golf he should understand. I got five holes to go. Yes, I did. “I’d rather have a private setting with maybe a little better cell connection to return the call,” and they said, “No, he wants to talk to you right now.” (interruption) Yes, I did say, “Can you give me five holes?”